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Oil's toxic legacy not erased

BP must do right when it comes to waste after the Gulf of Mexico disaster. |
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By ROBERT BULLARD & AL HUANG | 8/13/10 2:23 PM EDT

The U.S. government declared that BP's damaged Macondo well gushed almost 5 million barrels of oil in to the Gulf of Mexico. It is officially the largest accidental oil spill in human history — almost 20 times larger than the Exxon Valdez incident.

As we learned from Exxon Valdez, oil disasters of this magnitude leave a toxic legacy on the environment and the communities that depend on it for their livelihoods — a legacy that can last for decades.

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POLITICO 44

One toxic legacy of the BP disaster that has gotten scant attention is disposal of all the oiled waste: the debris from cleanup — like booms and the contaminated water.

Oiled debris can raise potential health threats in the collection and transport of the waste, as well as in the future operation of landfills. Are these landfills properly lined? Are the linings being maintained? Is there appropriate monitoring to ensure waste does not leach into surrounding groundwater?

If any debris is burned — the means of disposal discussed in several areas — air emissions could pose significant health threats for local residents. For facilities treating and storing liquid waste, the concern is whether it is properly stored — so it doesn’t contaminate local wells used for drinking water.

According to BP’s Oil Spill Waste Summary, as of Aug. 1, almost 40,000 tons of this oiled waste is in landfills in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi. The waste is primarily oiled booms, clothing and debris; tar balls that may be too mixed with other chemicals like dispersants for reclamation; oil-contaminated soils, sands and vegetative debris; animal carcasses, and other trash associated with the cleanup activities.

BP also reported that, as if Aug. 1, approximately 11 million gallons of liquid and oily liquid waste had been disposed of in facilities in Mississippi, Alabama and Texas.

This massive stream of oiled waste is where the toxic legacy of the BP disaster will live on.

One of the few ways to minimize this toxic waste is to focus on oil recovery during the cleanup process. But unfortunately, as we’ve seen over the past few months, advanced oil recovery technology just isn’t there yet. For BP, it’s far cheaper to landfill the waste than invest in developing new technologies.

But, when all the oiled waste gets landfilled, it doesn’t just disappear. It ends up in the backyards of communities already affected by the disaster. Usually, it exacerbates long-standing environmental justice issues in the region.

The Gulf Coast has a long history of environmental injustices. Consider Louisiana’s “cancer alley,” an 85-mile stretch up the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Baton Rouge in whicn more than 140 oil refineries and petrochemical plants jostle the fencelines of primarily African-American communities.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina generated more than 100 million cubic acres of debris, which often ended up in landfills near low-income communities and communities of color.

For example, many attempts were made to open Chef Menteur landfill adjacent to one of the largest Vietnamese populations in the Gulf region, to accept hurricane trash. History may now be repeating itself with the BP disaster.

It is still far from clear which companies are responsible for the Macondo disaster. The ongoing investigations are now implicating other companies far more than the premature Congressional hearings.

Additionally, the federal government has considerable culpability for their role in directing the marine fire fighting efforts and for refusing expert foreign assistance for just over two months.

At the end of the day, BP will pay claims as they have stated many times. However, they will probably have many legal actions against other companies, particularly if those companies are found guilty as a result of completed federal investigations.

Although BP has been vilified by the Obama administration, the mainstream press, and subsequently the American public, the final verdict will probably be determined the American Way . . . in a Court of Law: not by the President, not by Congress, not by federal Agencies, not by Gibbs, It and definitely not by the press.

The writers of this article need to get some kind of life. "Boo Hoo! What about the booms? What are we going to do about the contaminated booms!???"...."Are the landfills lined???!!! Huh??!! Are they??!! Are they??!!" No gentlemen, and the earth from whence the oil came isn't lined, either. You will not die, boys. Go cover the CFL lightbulbs that are being broken at supermarkets and hardware stores all over America.

But, when all the oiled waste gets landfilled, it doesn’t just disappear. It ends up in the backyards of communities already affected by the disaster. Usually, it exacerbates long-standing environmental justice issues in the region.

Maybe it is relatively inconsequential --- or maybe it is actually MORE consequential than any of the rest of it! For there is a "whole 'nother dimension" of this Oil Spill fiasco that does not seem to be being dicussed at all --- AND I SUBMIT THAT PEOPLE IN GENERAL REALLY SHOULD BE POINTEDLY WONDERING WHY IT IS NOT!

I refer to all the METHANE that has PRESSURIZED the flow of this gusher to the extent of having DRIVEN that whole spill of 4.9 million barrels of oil. For weeks we watched that ugly brown mess BUBBLE out of the bore hole. WHAT ABOUT THE FLOW OF GASES THAT COMPRISED A MAJOR PART OF THAT PICTURE?!

I would point out to people that METHANE (CH4) is a VERY "EFFICACIOUS" GREENHOUSE GAS! (meaning, of course, that IT TOO, just like the CO2 about which many folks now generally understand, operates like a "blanket" that "holds in" the energy of electromagnetic energy from the Sun, photons of which EASILY PASS THROUGH the atmosphere COMING IN, but then interact with the atoms of the Earth that they eventually strike and end up being converted to LOWER FREQUENCY photons of INFRA-RED energy. To THESE, such gases are OPAQUE, so that the resulting "heat" energy CANNOT THEN RE-RADIATE FREELY BACK OFF OUT INTO SPACE. So it "PILES UP", and THE EARTH GETS HOTTER!)

But CO2 is NOT THE ONLY such "greenhouse gas"; METHANE is actually reputedly MUCH WORSE than CO2! Furthermore, lest people imagine that it too (like the OIL) has merely been dispersed into the water, BE ADVISED: METHANE IS NOT WATER-SOLUBLE! Presumably however much of it has been released I WOULD THINK MUST HAVE BUBBLED UP THROUGH THE WATER AND GONE OFF INTO THE AIR!!

"We" LONG ago already realized that this stuff (being FLAMMABLE, and indeed EXPLOSIVE) needed to be "disposed of". And years ago one would see FLARES burning in the vicinity of oil refineries --- which at least served to "convert" METHANE into carbon dioxide, which IS NOT flammable and explosive. We don't do THAT nowadays any more (at least not in "developed" countries); rather "we" CAPTURE the stuff. (It is USEFUL AS A FUEL!) And indeed, nowadays every lousy LANDFILL is outfitted with a system of gas-collection wells to CAPTURE the methane that is inevitably given off in the course of the decomposition of complex organic material.

But if such a release occurs A MILE UNDER WATER --- EVIDENTLY NOBODY EVEN BOTHERS TO THINK ABOUT THE WHOLE SUBJECT! I submit that now, if the flow IS indeed finally quelled, it IS high time to think about that! I, for one, wonder whether perhaps there might be a dimension of the damage of "our" initiatives to drill deep under water THAT IS SIMPLY BEING IGNORED HERE! --- being considered by many folks who are "firmly on the hook" of "our" marvelous oil-centered economic DIS"order" to be in essence ostensibly "trumped" by the "ECONOMIC disruption" about which so many are (perhaps foolishly?) TOO concerned when there may be EVEN LARGER concerns!

So now --- HOW ABOUT SOME ACTUAL EXPERTISE BEING DEVOTED TO CONSIDERING THIS DIMENSION OF THE "SPILL" AS WELL!! Any EXPERTS out there care to COMMENT??